IGA NAMES NEW CHAIRMAN, PRESIDENT AND CEO OF IGA USA

Haggai to Assume role as CEO of IGA Global

CHICAGO, IL - IGA today announced Mark Batenic has been named the new chairman, president and chief executive officer of IGA USA, reporting to the IGA USA Board. Batenic, executive vice president and chief operating officer of Clemens Markets, Kulpsville, Pa., will remain with Clemens through mid-November to assist the company in the completion of the sale of 22 of its 23 stores to Giant Foods, the Carlisle, Pa.-based division of Ahold USA and C&S Wholesale Grocers, Inc.

Once Batenic takes office in late November, IGA’s domestic and international businesses will be divided into two sovereign companies. Batenic, as chairman, president and CEO of IGA USA, will assume responsibilities for IGA’s domestic operations, while current IGA Chairman and CEO Dr. Thomas S. Haggai will take the title of non-executive chairman of IGA, INC., and CEO of IGA Global. Haggai will oversee operations of IGA Global, a Singapore Corporation, from his offices in his hometown of High Point, N.C.

Batenic’s appointment marks the first significant management restructuring at IGA since 1986, when Haggai became chairman and CEO after 14 years on the IGA Board, including nine years as non-executive chairman.

Haggai disclosed plans a year ago to pass oversight of IGA’s U.S. operations to another executive. The search committee that selected Batenic was headed by Drayton McLane, president and CEO of McLane Group, Temple, Texas, who succeeded Ron Marshall as committee chairman when Marshall retired last February as CEO of Minneapolis-based Nash Finch Co.

Batenic said the separation of oversight of IGA’s 1,152 domestic stores from its 2,890 stores overseas will enable the company to improve communications among IGA’s U.S. retailers, their distribution centers and the parent company so that all three have a clear understanding of IGA as a whole. “With Tom running both the domestic and international operations, there were not enough hours in the day for him to devote adequate time to both groups,” Batenic said. “But as head of IGA USA, my sole purpose will be to enhance the growth of the IGA system in this country and to make sure the retailers and distribution centers are working well with each other and our Red Oval [manufacturer] partners.”

“I hope to be able to enhance and grow the firm foundation Tom’s been able to build over the last 20 years and give more attention and emphasis to the USA stores.”

Batenic has spent most of his career connected in some manner with IGA — working for Rusty’s IGA in Lawrence, Kansas, while he was attending the University of Kansas, then working with IGA retailers throughout most of his 29-year career with Fleming.

“Throughout my career I’ve worked with independent, family-owned grocers, including my time at Clemens, and I feel terrific about continuing to work with those kinds of entrepreneurial enterprises, which are one of the hallmarks of this country. I think there are still tons of opportunities for independents to grow and for people to continue to run their own businesses.”

Haggai said Batenic is “the best choice IGA could have made. He’s spent his whole life dealing with IGA members, from his time at college though his years at Fleming, where he had 800 IGA stores supplied by Fleming reporting to him. He knows the IGA system and over the last four years, working for Jack Clemens [chairman and CEO of Clemens], he’s gained first-hand retail experience from one of the best.”

“Right now IGA Global is expanding at a pace literally beyond our expectations,” Haggai said. “With Batenic coming, both IGA USA and IGA Global will be better served.”

IGA is the world's largest voluntary supermarket network with aggregate worldwide retail sales of more than $20 billion per year. The Alliance includes more than 4,000 Hometown Proud Supermarkets worldwide, supported by 52 distribution companies and more than 55 major manufacturers, vendors and suppliers encompassing everything from grocery to equipment items. IGA ranks in the top 10 in world food supermarketing. IGA has operations in 48 of the United States and more than 40 countries, commonwealths and territories on all six inhabited continents. IGA's theme and philosophy, Hometown Proud, dates from its 1930s national radio show, IGA Hometown Hour, reflecting the local roots of IGA independent grocers.